Feeling of Freedom
by WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: Both of them expected to spend the night alone with their thoughts. (Rating is a strong T.)


**This is a happy birthday fic for Erin, without whom Tumblr would suffer greatly.**

 **If you don't like the idea of Happy and Megan, refrain from reading the fic as opposed to leaving me a homophobic review.**

* * *

Happy shoves her hands in her pockets as she continues her brisk pace up the street. It's chilly out, at least for Malibu, and there's a breeze coming off the ocean. If she had planned her night better, she would have taken a jacket on her way out, but _get out of here, wander around, clear your head_ weren't the type of plans that usually accompanied premeditation.

A strand of hair is stuck to her lip. Happy ignores it, focusing instead on the lights up ahead. They're far enough in the distance that they're probably Pepperdine. It occurs to her that it's been over three hours since she abandoned her car. She's either going to have to find somewhere to sleep or stay up for half the night walking back to the vehicle.

"You doing alright there, little one?"

Happy jumps, then squints. There is a woman sitting on a bench, right at the edge of a lamp post's light. She had a hint of an accent that Happy couldn't place. "Little one? I'm probably just as tall as you are."

The woman stands up. "You may be a hair taller," she says. "But I meant your age. I call my little brother little one. He's much taller than I am."

"I'm twenty."

"Hi twenty. I'm Megan. Sorry." Megan laughs, and suddenly Happy finds herself self-conscious of the hair clinging to her lip. She brushes it aside as Megan continues. "That was such a dad joke."

"Wouldn't know. I don't have a dad. Or a mom." Happy mentally kicks herself. _Way to overshare, Quinn._

"Is that why you're out here, super late at night?"

"No." That's the truth. "There's loud music playing above and next to me. I can't drown it out. So I left." She cocks her head. "Why are you out super late at night?"

"I'm sick. Not in a contagious way. I have multiple sclerosis. Tomorrow I'm going into an inpatient program for a while. I won't be allowed to leave so I want to be out as much as I can tonight."

"By yourself?"

"My parents are in Ireland." _That's the accent, Irish,_ Happy thinks. "My brother is in denial about the whole thing. He's spending the night studying everything he can find out this program. He wants to know it inside and out." She gets to her feet. "You want some company walking?"

Happy is about to say no, she prefers being by herself, but then she figured, "why not?"

Megan smiles. "You headed anywhere in particular?"

"Nope. Just forward."

"The only direction to go."

They don't talk much as they continue, aside from small talk that mostly results in Happy learning more about Megan. She came to the United States a few years ago, eighteen months after her diagnosis. Her brother, at only twenty, had already spent several years assisting the government, until there had been some sort of falling out. Happy can't tell if Megan knows more details and doesn't want to share, or if her guess as to what happened is as good as Happy's. But soon she forgets, because Megan is talking about the stars.

"I adore space," she says. "It's so vast. It makes you appreciate existing, because so much had to happen for us to be here."

"I do like space," Happy says, and, thinking of a joke, one corner of her mouth turns up in a smirk. "Both outer and personal."

Megan stops, snickering quietly as she rolls her lower lip under her top teeth. "Oh my gosh." She nods rapidly, "that's so something my brother would say."

Happy realizes that the lights she'd seen – how long ago was that, now? – were almost upon them. "That's the school," she comments.

"It's a great view from the top," Megan replies. "I get tired when I walk all the way up there, but you can drive it, and it's pretty at the top."

"Did you go here?"

"No – no. I'm not religious. But it's pretty. There are a lot of flowers if you're at the right time of year. Sometimes my brother brings me because I like to look at them. And maybe he does too. He struggles to understand the value of aesthetic things."

Happy enjoys flowers. She feels like she shouldn't – it doesn't fit the façade she wants to give off. But she doesn't know this girl. She can be whoever she wants to be tonight. "Flowers make things seem brighter."

"Exactly." They were at the main entrance. "Do you want to go in?"

"And do what?"

Megan shrugs. "I don't know. Help me make a memory before I lose my freedom."

"It won't be forever."

"No. But I'm sure at some point, I'll walk into a hospital and never walk out. So I want to remember the _out_ as much as I can. It's lonely to only have a few memories to visit. And you seem like someone I might enjoy having a memory with."

"You okay?" Happy asks for what is probably the tenth time.

"Yup." Megan is panting, and she puts a hand to her forehead as if she's dizzy again. "I've been in worse shape when I've gotten up here, that's for sure. Maybe knowing I won't be able to do this for a while makes me stronger tonight."

"I'm not sure that's how it works," Happy says with a smile.

"Eh." Megan sits down on a ledge. "The sun'll rise in an hour or so. My brother will come looking for me once he realizes I snuck out."

"I've heard that some people come up here to watch the sun rise. Maybe we can get a ride back down with one of them."

"Getting down is harder on me than climbing, actually," Megan says, still panting lightly and flexing her ankles. "It requires more control for balance and speed regulation."

Happy sits down next to her, the chill from the rock (marble?) immediately permeating her leggings. She wraps her arms around herself, feeling too cold again.

"Aw, scoot here," Megan says, touching the tip of her finger to the space between them. Happy is glad that she's been in the dark long enough that her eyes have adjusted, because she loves the feeling Megan's encouraging smile gives her. She moves closer, their hips touching, and Megan slings an arm around her waist. "Tonight's been a lot of fun, Hap." She tips her head to the side, regarding the younger woman curiously. "Can I call you Hap?"

"Why not." Happy despises nicknames. Nicknames were always reserved for the biological kids. But the way Megan says _Hap_ sounds...nice.

"Okay." Megan's arm tightens slightly around her. "I'm sure you weren't expecting to be spending tonight with anyone. I wasn't either, but...but this is a memory. And memories might be the only thing I love more than the stars."

She looks up, a smile on her face as she stares upward. The dimmest of the stars have faded, although it's still a while to sunrise. But the brightest ones still shine down, glinting, distinguishing them from the planets.

She looks absolutely beautiful and Happy draws in a breath, realizing that her pulse isn't just elevated from the hike.

Then Megan turns and looks at her, wordlessly, her chest rising and falling with her breath, and they stay that way, silent and still, for what feels like enough time for the sun to come up. But it's still dark.

"Can I kiss you?" Megan asks, her voice quiet but sure.

Happy nods. "Uh...huh."

Megan leans in – only slightly, they're too close together to require much – and Happy's eyes fall closed as their lips meet, brushing lightly over each other. Megan's lips are slightly cool from the air around them but quickly warm, and Happy welcomes the softness against her own lips, slightly rough from the lack of humidity in her apartment. Megan doesn't seem to mind, pushing her mouth against Happy's and twisting her body, pulling her closer. She runs her tongue along Happy's lips, asking for access, and Happy grants permission, surprising herself by moaning as Megan's tongue strokes hers. She kisses her back with more vigor, sliding a hand up into Megan's hair, keeping her close.

Happy is only wearing the built in bra that comes with her tank top, something Megan seems to notice when she runs her hand, slowly, up and down the younger woman's back. She slowly slides her hand around, up and over one of Happy's breasts, and Happy moans again, loudly, into her mouth as Megan rubs her hard with her thumb. Her fingers curl tightly around Megan's hair, the hand on Megan's back presses into her skin and she's sure her nails will leave indentations, but she can't help it. She wants to lock her lips around Megan's and kiss her senselessly but she can't when she's breathing this hard, so she moves her lips down to Megan's neck, desperate to find some way to make her falter, unable to replicate what is being done so gloriously to her because the older woman is wearing too many layers and Happy is certainly not going to be presumptuous and start undressing her. She hears a quiet sound from Megan as she trailed kisses down her neck, but it's when she lightly sucks at the skin just below her ear that Megan gasps and the fingers that are still around Happy's back dig into her slightly. Happy is pleased to have discovered this, and she flicks her tongue against the spot, not wanting to mark a woman she just met hours before she'd be undergoing physical examinations.

Happy wonders if it's appropriate to be doing this up here. This garden was opened to honor lives lost. Then she wonders if, symbolically, that's precisely why Megan felt like she needed to come here.

Megan slides her hand from Happy's back, up to her face, drawing it up to reunite their lips. Happy welcomes the contact scooting closer, their chests pressing together as Happy's arms curl around Megan's neck and Megan's around Happy's midsection. Everything around her is beginning to spin, to blur, and she wishes that she _could_ be presumptuous but they just met, they're in a public place, and she doesn't even know the last name of this woman who, before the calendar date changes again, will be going away for a long time. Happy realizes that she doesn't even know if this inpatient program is in the United States. Megan hasn't given specifics. The pessimism that Happy has developed her entire life wonders if the story was simply a line, if perhaps she is only the most recent in a long line of men and women that Megan has brought up here. But somehow, despite her nature to doubt, Happy knows that Megan is not lying.

What she is doing it kissing. And it's good. It was good the moment their lips first met but as they continue it's getting better, everything about her is warm and soft and close and Happy moans again as Megan's thumb lightly strokes the side of her face.

Megan slowly begins to shift her backward, and Happy almost squeaks at the coolness of the...whatever material this was...on her bare back, where her tank top stops just an inch shy of the waistband of her leggings. Then Megan leans down, kissing her again before settling on her left side, half on top of Happy, her left leg hooked over Happy's right. She slides a hand slowly up Happy's leg, over her hip and her stomach, and then finds her breast again, squeezing and massaging, tracing lightly around her visible nipple. Happy croaks out the first syllable of Megan's name, and Megan locks their lips together, taking in the moans of the woman beneath her.

Eventually, both of them out of breath, Megan rolls back onto her side and grins, one leg bent at the knee, her hands laying casually on her stomach. "Wow," she says.

Happy nods as she draws in a deep breath and then slowly lets it out. She's fully clothed. Megan is fully clothed. Their hands never slipped under any clothing, and yet she hasn't felt this satisfied with an encounter in... "the sun is coming up."

Megan nods. "Uh huh." She sits up, smiling down at Happy. "Part of me was thinking I'd end up hating last night because it was my last night out before this new treatment but..." she smiles. "Hap, I had such a great time with you."

Happy sits up, wiggling her shoulders slightly. She'd been on her back for the better part of an hour, probably, and she's a bit sore. "I did too. I...I really did."

"I probably should have...um..." Megan bites her lip. "I was thinking we were just having some fun. It occurs to me now that you might..."

"No," Happy says, quickly and honestly. "I wasn't thinking I'd see you again."

She's not the best at reading people's emotions, but Happy _can_ tell that there is relief on Megan's face. "Oh good." She grins. "You're, uh...you're a really good kisser."

Happy lets out an embarrassed chuckle. "You are, too."

"I see lights," Megan says, pointing down toward the road that leads to the viewing area. "Maybe they can give us a ride back down."

* * *

When Megan walks into the garage with Walter ten years later, her hair is shorter and she's using walking aids, but Happy recognizes her instantly.

Two weeks later, at Scorpion's Christmas party, Megan hugs her and reveals that she recognized her, too.

* * *

 **I tried my best to tie this into the series the best I could (with Megan making similar jokes when they introduce themselves, perhaps her way in Talismans of telling Happy she knows who she is, etc). It's my first time writing a full-fledged oneshot for them, so I hope you guys liked it!**

 **Reviews are welcome as always.**


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